Suit Seeks Single-member Districts

HALLANDALE BEACH — A group of anonymous residents, with the backing of U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, has filed a lawsuit against the city seeking a switch to single-member districts.

The city's current at-large system makes it impossible for blacks to get elected, says attorney Mikel Jones, who filed the lawsuit in Broward County Circuit Court on Tuesday. Single-member districts would allow residents in a given district to vote for candidates who live in their district.

"African-American residents have a vested interest because they would like to elect someone of their choosing," Jones said. "As it stands now they cannot do so."

The problem he said is that "whites tend to vote for whites."

Hastings, D-Miramar, has been vocal about the city's need to switch to single-member districts and was a catalyst for the legal action. Hastings said filing the lawsuit on Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday was no coincidence.

"I want all blacks and whites who point to Dr. King as a symbol of equality to understand that this is about equality," he said, noting that a lawsuit seems to be the only way to get fairness.

City Attorney Mark Goldstein could not be reached for comment.

All five commissioners were named in the lawsuit because they have the capacity to change the city's charter to allow for districting. However, three of the five sitting city commissioners said they do not support single-member districts and disagree that blacks, or anyone for that matter, are under represented.

"The city is too small for single-member districts," said Vice Mayor Fran Schiller.

Commissioner Joy Cooper has pushed for a change to residential districting with an at-large mayor. She said it provides for more "balanced representation" and would rid the election process of "cronyism."

Although black residents make up about 14 percent of the city's population of 34,282, the city has had only one black commissioner -- John Saunders, who served from 1971 to 1979.

Single-member districting likely would have gotten African-American leader Josh Brown a commission seat in the city's October special election held to replace former Mayor Joe Scavo, who died in July.

Brown, a resident of the predominantly black northwest area, finished third. He garnered 561 of the 2,499 votes , and picked up the most absentee ballots and the most votes in any one precinct. His voting precinct also had the second highest turnout in the election.

Brown supports the lawsuit and was one of the residents who sought help from Hastings. "The proof is in the pudding," he said. "[The lawsuit] is the only way to make this happen."

Jones also contends that the city is in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1964 because the at-large election process "dilutes, minimizes and, indeed, cancels out the voting strength of African-Americans."

All African American residents are named as potential plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Jones said.

This is the second lawsuit Jones has filed in two years to get a public entity to switch to districting. In a 1999 lawsuit, Jones got the Palm Beach County School Board to put the districting issue up for a referendum and it passed.